Prologue: Having tried to read and
understand St Louis De Montfort’s book but finding myself wanting I am writing
this synopsis which might lead me to an understanding of what I am certain is a
great work. It is significant that Pope John Paul II admitted that he had to
read the book several times until it became ‘a turning point in his life’. I
also recall the words of Padre Pio’s assistant, Father Joseph Pius O.F.M. Cap.,
who said during a Retreat at Pantasaph in 1995 that reading this book was “the
best thing to do after baptism”.

St Louis De Montfort

St Louis was born on the 31st
January 1673. He was ordained a priest in 1700. He wanted to become a missionary
but was advised to remain in France where he did exceptional work in travelling
around Western France giving instructions, preaching, helping the poor, hearing
confessions, giving retreats, opening schools and rebuilding church buildings.

He walked the thousand miles to Rome to obtain
the Holy Father’s approval for his work. Pope Clement XI told him to continue
with his work and named him Missionary Apostolic.

St Louis founded two religious orders one for
women, the Daughters of Wisdom, and one for men, Missionaries of the Company of
Mary (Montfort Fathers and Brothers). He wrote several books based on his
sermons which emphasised devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Exhausted by his labours he died peacefully on
the 28th April 1716. He was only 43. He was canonized in 1947.

St Louis’ Preliminary Remarks

It was through the most holy Virgin Mary that
Jesus came in to the world, and it is also through her that he reigns in the
world. By her perfect humility she remained hidden during her life.

St Bonaventure tells us that all the angels in
Heaven cry out incessantly “Holy, holy, holy Mary, Mother of God and Virgin”,
and that they offer to her, millions and millions of times a day, the Angelic
Salutation, Ave Maria.

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor man’s
heart comprehended” (1 Cor. 2:9) the beauties, the grandeurs, the excellences of
Mary – the miracle of the miracles of grace, of nature and of glory.

The more
the Holy Ghost finds Mary

His dear and
inseparable spouse, in any

soul, the
more active and mighty He

becomes in
producing Jesus Christ in

that soul
and that soul in Jesus Christ.

St Louis De Montfort

Necessity of The Blessed Virgin and of
Devotion To Her

Mary, being a mere creature that has come from
the hands of the Most High, is in comparison with His Infinite Majesty less than
an atom; or rather, she is nothing at all. Nevertheless. God willed to commence
and complete His greatest works by the most holy Virgin.

Mary Was Necessary to God in the
Incarnation of the Word.

St Augustine tells us that the world was
unworthy to receive the Son of God direct from the Father’s hands. He gave Him
to Mary in order that the world might receive Him through her.

He found His glory and His father’s in hiding
His splendours from all creatures and revealing them to Mary only. He glorified
His independence and His majesty in depending on that sweet Virgin in His
conception and His birth, in His presentation in the temple, His hidden life of
thirty years, and even in His death, where she was to be present in order that
He might make with her but one same sacrifice and be immolated to the Eternal
Father by her consent, just as Isaac of old was offered by Abraham.

Our Blessed Lord began his miracles by Mary.
By Mary’s word at the Visitation He sanctified St John in Elizabeth’s womb. He
changed water into wine because of Mary’s prayer. He began and continued His
miracles by Mary. He will continue them to the end of ages by Mary.

When the Holy Spirit, the spouse of Mary,
finds Mary in any soul, the more active and mighty he becomes in producing Jesus
Christ in that soul and that soul in Jesus Christ.

Mary is Necessary to God in the
Sanctification of Souls.

1. God the Father made an assemblage of all
His graces and He called it Mary.

2. God the Son has communicated to His Mother
all that He required by His life and His death.

3. God the Holy Spirit has communicated His
unspeakable gifts to Mary. He has chosen her to be the dispenser of all He
possess and she distributes to whom she wills, as much as she wills and when she
wills, all His gifts and graces.

‘These three important facts stated simply
above can be proved by the Holy Scriptures and the Fathers, quoting the original
passages but as I speak particularly to the poor and simple, who being of good
will, having more faith than the common run of scholars, I content myself with
stating the truth quite plainly, without quoting Latin passages.’

In the writings of Sts. Bernard, Bernadine and
Bonaventure we learn that in Heaven and on earth even God Himself is subject to
the Blessed Virgin as a child is subject to its Mother. Her prayers and
petitions are so powerful with God that they always pass for commandments with
His Majesty, who never resists the prayer of His dear Mother, because she is
always humble and conformed to His will.

As Moses by force of prayer, stayed the rage
of God against the Israelites, so much more can Mary who is more powerful than
Moses.

In Heaven Mary commands the angels and due to
her humility is empowered to fill with saints the empty thrones from which
Lucifer and his followers fell by pride. God has empowered Mary to be sovereign
of Heaven and earthy, dispenser of His graces, worker of His greatest marvels,
restorer of the human race, and Mediator between God and man.

We all have an earthly mother and father and
in the supernatural and spiritual sense our Father and Mother are God and Mary.
For this reason those who do not acknowledge Mary but treat her with contempt do
not have God as their Father, however much they may boast of it.

We must welcome Mary into our souls. When she
strikes her roots in a soul, she produces there marvels of grace, which she
alone can produce. Mary has produced, together with the Holy Spirit, the
greatest thing which has been or ever will be – a God-Man; and she will
consequently produce the greatest saints that there will be in the end of time.
In so much as Mary resides in our souls so will the Holy Spirit also take up
residence. The Holy Spirit and His spouse, Mary, are ‘inseparable’.

CONSEQUENCES of the above.

Mary is Queen of All Hearts

We can conclude that Mary cannot carry out all
that is contained in the previous three chapters unless she has a right and a
domination over their souls by a singular grace of the Most High. It follows
that she is Queen of all hearts.

Mary Is Necessary to Men

In that Mary is necessary to God in
consequence of His will, it follows that she is far more necessary to men in
order that she may attain their last end.

Necessary to All Men to Attain Salvation

In their writings many of the great Fathers of
the Church including St. Augustine, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Anselm, St.
Germanus of Constantinople, St. Bernard, St. Thomas and St. Bonaventure, have
proved invincibly that devotion to our Blessed Lady is necessary to salvation.
To quote but one; St. Francis when in an ecstasy saw a great ladder ascending
into Heaven, at the top of which stood the Blessed Virgin. It is by her that we
make our way to Heaven.

Still More Necessary to Those Called to a
Special. Perfection

It is Mary alone to whom God has given the
keys of the cellars of divine love and the power to enter into the most sublime
and secret ways of perfection and the power likewise to make others enter in
there also. The souls richest in graces and virtues, shall be the most assiduous
in praying to our Blessed Lady and in having her always present as their perfect
model for imitation and their powerful aid for help.

Especially Necessary to the Great Saints Of
the Latter Times

God revealed to St. Vincent Ferrer, the great
apostle of his age, that in the end times great souls, full of grace and zeal,
will be chosen to match themselves against the enemies of God. They shall be
singularly devoted to our Blessed Lady and led by her spirit and sheltered under
her protection. They will overthrow and crush the heretics with their heresies,
the schismatics with their schisms, the idolaters with their idolatries and the
sinners with their impieties.

Providential Function of Mary in the Latter
Times

It was through May that the salvation of the
world was begun, and it is through Mary that it must be consummated. Mary hardly
appeared at all in the first coming of Jesus Christ, in order that men, as yet
but little instructed and enlightened in the Person of her Son, should not
remove themselves from Him in attaching themselves too strongly and too grossly
to her.

Existence of This Function and Reasons for
It

God then wishes to reveal and make known Mary,
the masterpiece of His hands, in these latter times. Mary must shine forth more
than ever in mercy and in grace, to bring back and lovingly receive the poor
strayed sinners who shall return to the Catholic Church.

Exercise of This Function In the struggle
against Satan

What Lucifer has lost by pride, Mary has
gained by humility. What Eve has damned and lost by disobedience, Mary has saved
by obedience. Eve, in obeying the serpent. has destroyed all her children
together with herself, and has delivered them to him. The humble Mary will
always have the victory over that proud spirit.

Exercise of This Function In the Formation
of her Apostles

God wishes that His holy Mother should be more
known, more loved, more honoured than she has ever been. Her apostles will learn
her sweetness and her maternal goodness and will consecrate themselves entirely
to her service as subjects and slaves of love. They will be true disciples of
Jesus Christ walking in the footsteps of His poverty, humility, contempt of the
world, and His charity.

Fundamental Truths of Devotion to the
Blessed Virgin

The previous chapters show the necessity of
devotion to the most holy Virgin. Now we must explain in what this devotion
consists.

First Truth.

Jesus Christ is the Last End of Devotion To
Mary.

There is no other name given under Heaven,
except the name of Jesus, by which we can be saved. If we are as one with Jesus
Christ then we have nothing to fear. If then we are at one with Jesus then
establishing a solid devotion to our Blessed Lady will establish even more
perfectly our devotion to Jesus Christ. Sadly the greater part of Christians,
even the most learned, do not know the union there is between Jesus and His Holy
Mother. (See
www.religiouswriting.com ‘The Life of Our Lady’ Pages 76 and 77).

Second Truth,

We Belong to Jesus and Mary as Their
Slaves.

St Paul explains to us: 1Corinthians:19-20
“…..your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given
to you by God. You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high
price. So you must honour God with your body.” There is nothing among men which
makes us belong to another more than slavery. Jesus Christ took on the form of a
slave for us. At the Annunciation Mary said “I am the Lord’s servant….”.

Our Blessed Lady is the means Our Lord used to
come to us. She is also the means we must use to go to Him.

Third Truth.

We Need Mary in Order to Die to Ourselves.

Our bodies are corrupted by both original and
actual sin. Before our souls can receive God’s graces they must be cleansed of
this corruption,. We do this by ‘dying to sin’. We must choose, among all the
devotions to the Blessed Virgin, the one which draws us most towards this
‘death’. The next ‘Truth’ is a consequence of the ‘Third.’

Fourth Truth.

We Need Mary As Our Mediatrix With Our
Mediator, Jesus Christ.

God The Son is our Mediator with The Father
but our tendency to sin means that our purity can never be enough to enable us
to go directly even to The Son. We need another ‘Mediator’ and that is Mary. To
go to Jesus we must go to Mary. She is our is Mediatrix of Intercession.

Fifth Truth

We Need Mary in Order to Preserve the
Graces & Treasures we have Received from God.

When we have all the graces and treasures from
God how can we guard them against the evil of devils who are always on the
prowl?. Through lack of humility we may consider ourselves capable of defending
ourselves. No so! We must hasten to Our Blessed Mother and ask for her
protection.

Choice of True Devotion to the Blessed
Virgin

Having laid down the five truths, we now
consider the seven false devotions to Our Lady. We must understand these so that
we may examine ourselves to ensure that we are not party to any of them.

1. False Devotions to the Blessed Virgin
and False Devotees’

Critical Devotees

These ‘devotees’ criticise nearly all the
practices of devotion. They lack humility.

2. Scrupulous Devotees

These devotees fear dishonouring the Son by
honouring the Mother. They dislike the Holy Rosary, and other devotions to Mary,
because they do not understand that the end product of prayers to Mary are to
honour her Son Jesus.

3. External Devotees

These are ‘devotees’ who ‘go through the
motions’ without amending their lives. They pray many Rosaries, attend Masses
enrol themselves in confraternities but all without imitating the virtues of the
holy Virgin.

4. Presumptuous Devotees

These ‘devotees’ continue living a life of
sin; pride, avarice, impurity, drunkenness, anger, etc. whilst claiming that
they will be ‘saved’ because they pray the Rosary; fast on Saturdays or wear the
Scapular. Nothing in Christianity is more detestable than this diabolic
presumption.

5. Inconstant Devotees

These ‘devotees’ are devout to Our Lady in
fits and starts. Sometimes fervent then a little while afterward lacking in any
devotion.

6. Hypocritical Devotees

These ‘devotees’ put on a display of devotion
in order to be taken for what they are not.

7. Interested Devotees

These ‘devotees’ have recourse to Our Lady
when they are in need. Their ‘devotion’ is false and they are pleasing neither
to God nor His Holy Mother.

True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin

CHARACTERISTICS

Having laid bare the false devotions we now
give the characteristics of true devotion.

1. Interior

True devotion to Our Lady comes from the mind
and heart.

2. Tender

This devotee is full of confidence. In times
of temptations and weaknesses it implores the aid of its good Mother. In all
trials the soul has recourse to Mary without fear of annoying her or displeasing
Jesus Christ.

3. Holy.

True devotion leads the soul to avoid sin and
to imitate the virtues of the Blessed Virgin.

4. Constant

These devotees do not ‘go along with the
trend’ but are courageous in opposing the world in fashion, the flesh, and
temptations. If they fall they stretch their hand out to their good Mother. They
live by faith.

5. Disinterested

This devotee does not seek to serve Mary from
a spirit of personal interest or for personal gain but from a genuine love for
the Mother of God.

PRACTICES

Common practices, both interior and
exterior

Interior practices

To honour her as the worthy Mother of
God

To meditate on her virtues.

To contemplate her grandeurs.

To make acts of love, praise and
gratitude to her.

To invoke her sincerely.

To offer ourselves to her and unite
ourselves with her.

To begin, continue and finish all our
actions by her in order that we may do them

by Jesus Christ.

Exterior practices.

To enrol ourselves in her
confraternities.

To join religious orders instituted in
her honour.

To proclaim her praises.

To give alms and fast in her honour.

To wear her liveries such as Rosary and
Scapular.

To recite the Holy Rosary.

To sing or have sung her canticles in
her honour.

To ask pardon of God through her for the
sins of the day.

To adorn her altars and crown her
images.

To carry her image as a mighty arm
against evil spirits.

To have copies of her name and picture
placed in churches and other suitable

places.

To consecrate ourselves to her in a
special and solemn way.

MOTIVES OF PERFECT DEVOTION TO THE
BLESSED VIRGIN

or

PERFECT CONSECRATION TO
JESUS CHRIST

FIRST MOTIVE

If we give ourselves entirely to Mary then we
are automatically giving ourselves to Jesus.

We must give Mary our body with all its
senses. Our soul with all its powers. Our exterior goods of fortune whether
present or to come. Our interior and spiritual goods, which are our merits and
our virtues, and our good works, past, present and future.

A person who voluntarily consecrates
themselves to Jesus Christ through Mary can no longer dispose of the value of
any of his good actions. All he suffers, all he thinks, all the good he does,
belongs to Mary, in order that she may dispose of it according to the will of
her Son.

SECOND MOTIVE

Jesus did not will to come into the world at
the age of a perfect man but like a poor little babe and through the Virgin
Mary. He found no more perfect means than to submit Himself in all things to the
Blessed Virgin.

We cannot find a more perfect means of
glorifying God than to submit ourselves to Mary as Jesus did.

St Bernard said that God, seeing that we are
unworthy to receive His graces immediately from Him, gives them to Mary to give
to us. “That grace should return to the giver by the same channel through which
it came”.

THIRD MOTIVE

By consecrating ourselves to Mary we become
the perfect servant of Mary as did St John “The disciple took her for his own”
(John 19:27). Therefore we no longer rely on our own dispositions, intentions,
merits, virtues and good works; our treasure is Mary.

However humble and well meaning our intentions
may be they are tainted with our worldliness. Mary will purify them and make
them acceptable to her Son.

FOURTH MOTIVE

Our Lady will ensure that our good works are
done for the greater Glory of God.

FIFTH MOTIVE

(Easier)

Devotion to Mary will not eliminate all
crosses on life’s journey but the Graces which we will receive form Mary will
make our journey easier.

(Shorter)

Devotion to Mary is a shorter route as we are
assisted by the Blessed Virgin.

(Perfect)

As Jesus came to us through Mary so it is the
most perfect way for us.

(Secure)

There is evidence that Devotion to Mary has
been practiced for nearly a thousand years and it is therefore historically
secure.

SIXTH MOTIVE

Through devotion to Mary we are slaves of
Jesus. What better Master could we have than Jesus?

SEVENTH MOTIVE

The value of all our good works are in Our
Lady’s hands and will be employed by her for the conversion of sinners and
deliverance of the Souls in Purgatory. Thus our devotion to Mary assists our
neighbour.

EIGHTH MOTIVE

By being Devoted to Mary we are not relying on
or own weak faith. She will protect us, not that she will take away all our
temptations but she will give us graces to help us to fight them.

********************************************************************

At this point the book tells the story of Rebecca and Jacob and offers an
interpretation which shows that God does not always favour the ‘eldest son’
as being entitled to the Father’s Blessing. This theme recurs frequently in
Genesis: Cain to Abel, Isaac to Ishmael, Rachel to Leah and their children.
Such preferences demonstrate the freedom of God’s choice, His contempt for
earthy standards of greatness and His regard for the lowly.